"I work across several different Community Linking programs as a project facilitator and a support worker. I’m giving outreach to local boarding house residents and helping to bring them out into the community. My favourite job is supporting an arts program we run for assisted boarding house residents every Tuesday at the Tom Foster centre. We help participants refine their skills and expression and create some really awesome projects. These guys are very talented and I just feel really grateful to be part of it.

One of the people I work with to support is fantastic at drawing birds. Every session he draws a brand new bird on a new landscape, and he reads up all the history and learns from it so in the end I end up learning all about these different birds just from his art. So being able to learn each day with these guys is just fantastic. Creativity is the flare that makes us who we are. It brings out the soul of a person.

What makes Newtown so special is that the people here actually give a damn. In Newtown if there’s a homeless person on the street people actually do sit and chat with them and do care about individuals. It’s just so accepting. No matter who you are what race or creed you are you can come here and just be yourself and everyone will respect that.

I think the work the centre does around homelessness just creates this idea of unity and whole. Everyone should have shelter and be under a roof and the Neighbourhood Centre and the people of Newtown really advocate for these people and help them to find their own place in the world—give them some food, find them somewhere to stay, and help teach them the skills to stand on their own feet again. And I think that’s just a fantastic thing."

We’re working to support residents of boarding houses and those facing homelessness.

And this year we'll be campaigning for more affordable housing in Sydney.

Sign our petition here.If you'd like to support the NNC in its work on affordable housing and homelessness you can make a donation.